


Fireworks

by orphan_account



Series: Zukka Week 2020 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fire Days Festival, Fuck canon I guess, M/M, Masquerade, Zhao? Sucks, Zukka Week, Zukka week 2020, hidden identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:07:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22340788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sokka meets a nice stranger at the Fire Days Festival, who reminds him of a certain banished prince. But you know, not evil.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zukka Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607809
Comments: 5
Kudos: 344





	Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> So I was originally going to make this only be centered around the festival but I got very carried away. So now it's over 3000 words long.

It was a dumb excuse to have fun. Aang wouldn’t learn any fire bending at the Fire Days Festival. Sokka knew it. Katara knew it. Even Aang knew it. But they deserved to have  _ some _ fun every once and awhile, didn’t they?

Still, walking right into a Fire Nation town was dangerous, they were asking to get caught, or killed. The first thing they saw was puppet show murder, this town wasn’t exactly pro-Avatar. So Sokka carefully slipped through the crowd, trying to find Aang and Katara. They had wandered off somewhere when Sokka was distracted by the various food provided by the festival. It was all on fire, however. 

He considered his predicament. Here he was, surrounded by maybe a hundred Fire Nation citizens, including maybe two dozen fire bending masters. He lost the two benders he travelled with, and all he had was a boomerang and his brain. Not that anything had happened yet that he should need to use it, but one can never be too careful when waltzing into enemy territory. Which is exactly why he was going over the plan in his head, instead of watching where he was going. He tripped, and fell directly into another festival goer.

The stranger yelped as they both fell onto the cobblestone street. Sokka was on top of the other boy, who he guessed must have been around his age. The boy wore a mask that covered the top half of his face, it was pale, with dark lines lining the eyes of the mask like makeup. Above the mask’s eyes was red eyeshadow. The boy had short, black hair. 

“Hi.” Sokka said, not moving from on top of the stranger.

“Hello.” He had a rough, gravelly voice that sounded oddly familiar. Sokka couldn’t exactly place it though so he dropped it and didn’t say anything. “Um, could you maybe get off of me?” 

“Oh!” Sokka rolled off of him, “Sorry,” He said, holding out his hands to help up the boy. His hands were warm, but not sweaty. Must be a fire bender thing. Weird. He pulled the boy up and stuck out his hand in greeting.

“I’m Sokka,” He realized he should have lied. Oh well. The boy seemed to tense up for a second before the stress rolled off his shoulders and he shook Sokka’s hand. 

“Lee,” He said, moving closer to Sokka and keeping his hand. Sokka’s face flushed under his mask, which was the same unfortunate color. 

“So, I’ve never been to this festival before.” Sokka drawled, “Care to show me around?”

“Sure,” Lee smiled, shifting his hand. He started to walk, pulling Sokka through the crowd of people. They passed rows and rows of benders before stopping in an alleyway, and Sokka realized maybe trusting a stranger at a Fire Nation festival was not his brightest idea, but he followed anyway. Lee opened a back door to a store which was shut down for the festival, and though every ounce of common sense Sokka had screamed at him not to go in, he entered the dark, abandoned shop. Lee entered behind him, shutting the door behind them. Sokka followed him up a flight of stairs, and finally to a door. 

The door led to the roof, where a lantern had been left by someone, Lee presumably. He sat down on the edge of the roof, hanging one leg off. Sokka sat next to him and dangled both legs of the edge, swaying them in the warm night air. Lee opened a bundle he had been keeping under his cloak, revealing two small loaves of bread. He took one out, heating it in his hand briefly, before passing it to Sokka. He took it, grateful for food that wasn’t on fire. 

“So, why the roof?” Sokka asked, biting into the bread. 

“Just wait a minute.” Lee laughed, starting on his own bread. 

“Okay,” Sokka responded, moving slightly closer to Lee. “What brings you to the festival?” He questioned.

“Needed a break. What about you?” Lee turned to him.

“Yeah, the same.” Sokka replied, looking at the sky. “My friends and I have been travelling for a couple months now.” He tried not to reveal who his friends were and what they were really doing. 

“Hm.” Lee hummed, also looking at the sky. “I’ve been travelling too. For three years.”  
  
“What for?” Sokka asked, curious. 

“I lost something.” Lee looked down. 

“Oh.” Sokka sensed that he didn’t actually want to talk about it and dropped the subject. Suddenly, there was a loud whistle through the sky, and a light flew up in the air. “What’s happening?” He asked, frantic. 

“Fireworks,” Lee said, looking at the sky again, this time almost entranced.

“What?” Sokka was confused as to why the other boy was so unbothered by the explosions overhead, but maybe that was just a Fire Nation thing. They sure did love their explosions.

“They’re like, explosions, but for art? They shoot colors into the sky and they make shapes. I’m not sure how they work exactly,” Lee explained, “But my mother used to bring me to this festival every year to see them. She loved them.”

“That’s nice,” Sokka said softly, resting his head on Lee’s shoulder. His shoulder grew tense but before Sokka could pull his head away, Lee was resting his head on Sokka’s. “My mother would take me and my sister to look at the sky lights sometimes. She told us they were spirits wandering between our world and theirs, looking out for us. I don’t know how much I believe that, but it’s a nice thought.”

“Yeah.” 

They sat quietly watching the fireworks light up the sky. Sokka was starting to fall asleep, forgetting about Katara and Aang. Lee exhaled heavily, probably also falling asleep. The air around them started to move, and the wind picked up. Suddenly, Aang dropped down on the roof. 

“Hi, Sokka!” He chirped brightly, closing his glider. “We were looking for you, but you disappeared. What are you doing on the roof?” He noticed Lee, “Oh, hi. Sokka, who’s your friend?” 

Katara came through the door behind them. Sokka pulled off his mask and rubbed the sleep off his face with the palms of his hands. “Sokka!” She exclaimed, “What are you doing up here?” 

“Hi Katara,” He muttered weakly, “This is Lee. Lee, this my sister, and my friend.”   
  


“I’m Lee,” He said quietly, voice a little deeper than normal. Katara narrowed her eyes.

“Your voice sounds familiar.” She was suspicious, Sokka could tell. 

“Leave him alone, Katara.” Sokka groaned, “He’s fine.”

“Sure.” She said, crossing her arms, “Have you even seen his face?” 

“Well, no--” 

“So how do you know you can trust him?” She challenged him. 

“I’m pretty sure if he wanted to kill me he would have done it by now.” Sokka scoffed, turning back to Lee, who was gone. Oh. 

“Oh, come on!” Katara pointed at where Lee had been, “That’s gotta be suspicious!” 

“Why do you need to worry about every single good thing that happens?” Sokka shouted, “Is it really that incredible that someone might want to talk to me without ulterior motives?”

“Sokka--”

“Save it,” He muttered, leaving the roof, ignoring Katara and Aang calling after him. 

He walked out into the street, but Lee was gone.

-

“Sokka, quit moping.” Aang ordered good-naturedly. 

Sokka grumbled and turned onto his side in his sleeping bag.

“Sokka,” Aang whined, elongating the a, “What’s wrong?”

“He’s just upset that we scared away his Fire Nation boyfriend.” Katara said sarcastically, crossing her arms. Sokka ignored her.

“Come on, Sokka,” Aang spread his arms out wide in front of him, “There’s a whole  _ world _ of hot people. And once the war is over you can date as many Fire Nation people as you want!” 

Sokka spluttered and sat up immediately. Katara laughed behind her hand, and Aang looked at her in smiling oblivion. 

Sokka sighed and sank back down into the warmth of his sleeping bag. He exhaled heavily.

“Okay, well, me and Katara are going to work on water bending now.” Aang chirped, bouncing away from their camp.

Katara stood uncomfortably for a second before speaking, “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you Sokka, but he was untrustworthy. There’s no telling what his intentions were!” 

Sokka muttered about how the situation was ironic considering how they met Aang in the first place, but he didn’t speak up. It didn’t matter anyway. He rolled over again, listening to her footsteps depart. Once he was sure she was gone, he left his sleeping bag and rooted through his stuff. He found the mask from the night before. It’s sunken in eyes bore into his skull, it knew his shame. It knew his secrets. It knew his soul.

He threw on a cloak and wrote a note about hunting, or whatever. He put on the mask and left the camp. The festival was still going for a couple more days, it didn’t hurt to check.

The festival was still going strong on day two. Maybe stronger, even. It was a little overwhelming, but that might have been the embarrassment. No one else knew why he was there, but it felt like they did. He scoured the sea of judgement, to no avail. Suddenly there was a voice behind him.

“Hey.” 

Sokka jumped and yelped embarrassingly. Lee laughed, open and bright. Sokka flushed under his mask. He turned around to greet Lee, who smiled at him. Sokka smiled back before remembering that his mask covers it. Lee gestured with his head to ask if they should walk, and Sokka nodded. They walked down the streets of the Fire Nation streets in a comfortable silence, looking at the vendors and the decorations, and the closed shops with posters for the festival put up in the windows. After a few hours,

“It’s interesting how they shut down the whole town for a festival.” Sokka comments. 

“Do they not… have festivals where you come from?” Lee inquired.

“Well, no. I’m from the Southern Water Tribe.” He should have lied, and he knows it, but something about lying to the Fire Nation boy made him feel guilty. 

“Oh. That’s cool.” Lee commented, and they walked in silence for a couple seconds, before he asked, “What is it like?”

“Hm?” Sokka hummed, having forgotten the previous subject.

“The Southern Water Tribe,”

“Oh!” He remembered, “It’s nice. Everyone knew-- knows each other. We’re all kind of like a big family, I guess.” 

“That does sound nice.” Lee said quietly.

“Where are you from?” Sokka asked, thinking the question to be innocent, but Lee immediately froze. 

“Uh, just, Fire Nation town.” He coughed, “Sorry, I just don’t like to talk about it. There’s a man there, very powerful in the Fire Nation who delights in torturing me. He would do worse if he could.”

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.”

Sokka changed the subject. “So, where can we get food that isn’t, um, aflame?” 

“Oh,” He looked down, “I have some in my bag.” He passes Sokka a pouch full of some sort of dried meat. He took it gratefully. 

“Thank you,” He said. 

“You’re welcome.” Lee said warmly. 

He realized he couldn’t eat without taking off the mask. He couldn’t get caught. He turned to Lee, “Um, do you wanna go somewhere where I can take this off?” 

Lee stopped walking again.

“What’s wrong?” Sokka asked, stopping as well.

“I--” He hesitated, “I can’t.”

“Oh. Um, why?” Sokka asked. 

“I just can’t, Sokka.” Lee said, frustrated. Sokka didn’t know what to say. “I just-- here!” Lee grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the town and into the woods.

“Lee, it’s okay, it’s not a big deal.” Sokka tried to rush out. “It doesn’t matter.”

“That isn’t my name.” He said. 

“Lee what do you mean?” Sokka worried, pulling off his mask.

Lee pulled off his mask. Sokka felt his stomach drop to his feet. Stood before him, in the woods next to a pro-war Fire Nation town, was the banished prince himself.

“No,” 

Zuko looks down in shame, “I’m sorry.”

Sokka doesn’t know what else to do but run. 

-

Sokka found himself deep in the woods. He stopped running and breathed violently. He sat down on a large tree root and started to hyperventilate. A few tears slip down his face, but he wipes them away quickly, before the dam breaks and he starts to sob. His shoulders shake and hot shame flashes over him quickly. Katara was right. Of course this would happen. He wondered if maybe he knew the whole time and convinced himself otherwise. He had been harboring a massive crush on the prince for a while. He felt disgust with himself roll over him in waves. After about half an hour it grew dark and he picked himself up and left the woods to head back to the camp. 

Sokka stepped into the camp where Katara and Aang were sitting next to each other by the fire. 

“Hi Sokka!” Aang greeted him cheerfully. 

“Hey.” He dropped down by the fire. 

“I thought you went hunting?” Katara prodded.

“Hm? Oh yeah. Didn’t find anything.” He put his head in his hands, staring into the flames. They reminded him of Zuko, and the shame that went along with him. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Katara asked gently, resting her hand on his shoulder. 

He snapped out of his self induced shame trance to look at her, “What? Yeah. Everything’s fine. Just frustrated, I guess.”

“Oh.”

He put his chin back in the palm of his hands. 

-

Sokka didn’t see Zuko for a couple weeks, which was longer than usual but definitely not unwelcome. They finally made it to the Northern Water Tribe, and Katara managed to convince Paku to train her. He walked along the wall of a bridge with Yue. 

Clearly she thought he was flirting with her, and maybe he was a little bit but he’s just friendly, “Sokka, this is wrong.”

“What’s wrong? We’re taking a walk!” 

“I’m engaged. It just feels--”

He brushed her off, dancing around the subject. He wasn’t interested in her romantically, but she didn’t need to know that yet. Nothing serious had happened. He invited her to fly with Appa, the princess needed a break. He felt for her, she didn’t have a choice in who she married. The Northern Water Tribe was unflinchingly strict, and uncomfortably backwards in it’s ways. Maybe when they ended up leaving, he could secure a better situation for her. But he doubted it. As they flew, Yue grew closer and closer to him. It was nice to touch someone, but it felt wrong. She almost kissed him, but he noticed the soot in the air and took it was an opportunity to back out. 

When they returned to the tribe, she told him that she couldn’t seem him anymore.

“We’re just friends!” He exclaimed, but she said that they couldn’t even be that. He tried to argue that she didn’t even like her fiance, realizing that he sounded like he was in love, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want this girl to throw away her life for some guy she didn’t like, or barely even knew. He imagined if his own tribe had those customs, and shuddered. The differences between the two tribes were staggering. He very quickly realized that he could be killed if he was honest about who he was. The Northern Water Tribe kept their citizens separate, only allowing women to be healers, while in the Southern Water Tribe, women could be warriors, hunters, whatever they chose. It wasn’t very common, but it increased heavily after most of the men in the tribe left to fight the Fire Nation. In the North, homosexuality was never spoken about, men and women couldn’t even be friends without serious backlash and judgement. Same-sex marriage was legal in the South, many women partnered up after most of the men left. It was fairly common. Sokka was pretty sure his own father was in a relationship with Bato, but he never mentioned it when they last spoke. Probably because of Katara, who was still hurting over the loss of their mother. 

But as Yue ran up the stairs, he felt guilt like a pit in his stomach. He knew there was probably nothing he could do, but he promised himself to try and help her as soon as the battle was over. He volunteers himself to fight. 

When he meets Yue’s fiance Hahn, he immediately hates him. When he says some absolutely disgusting things about her, he jumps on him, letting his anger take over. If Yue’s father hadn’t stepped in, Sokka might have beaten Hahn to death. But he gets assigned to guard her, which might help in getting her away from him.

-

When he finds out that Zuko took Aang, he wasn’t surprised. He was disappointed, and embarrassed, but not surprised. He talks about Zuko’s determination when they search for him and Aang, secretly wishing that he used his determination for good instead of evil. They find them, and Katara wipes him out on sight. Aang insists on helping him, and Sokka thanks the Spirits for his pacifism. He fought to leave him but with no bite. 

When the sky turned red, Sokka knew it was Zhao. When Yue kisses him, it feels wrong. She was more like a sister to him. He cries when she dies. He didn’t know her for long, but it still felt like losing a family member.

When Zhao is killed, Sokka knows that Zhao was who Zuko was talking about at the festival. Sokka is relieved.

-

Sokka sees flashes of Zuko in the swamp, and flinches when Huu tells them what the visions mean. 

-

The next time he sees Zuko, his uncle gets injured. He makes them leave before they can help. Sokka prays that he’ll be okay. After that, they run into him a few more times, but it was the same as always. They think maybe he doesn’t care about his father, but then someone in his family twists his thoughts and ropes him back. 

The final run-in, Zuko asks to join their group. Sokka remembers the festival, and clearly Zuko does too, by the way he looks at him. Sokka’s chest aches, but he fights to keep him out. He eventually proves himself, and Sokka shows him around. 

“So, lunch? Soon.” He explains with false confidence. 

“Sokka,” Zuko says darkly, “Are we going to ignore what happened?” 

“What happened months ago?” Sokka challenged, crossing his arms, “When you lied to me?” 

“I didn’t--”

“You did,” He said, “I’m not angry, I just--” He uncrossed his arms, “Why bring that up? Did it even mean anything to you?” 

“It did!” Zuko shouted helplessly before lowering his voice and repeating, “It did.”

Sokka didn’t say anything, recrossing his arms. He didn’t have the words.

“I’m sorry,” He exhaled.

Sokka let out a frustrated groan, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“I-- you don’t have to stay here--” 

Sokka took Zuko’s face in his hands hand kissed him. 

“I love you.” He said when he pulled away.

“I love you too.”

-

When the war ends, Sokka takes Zuko to see the fireworks. 

  
  



End file.
